Arriving at where I needed and expected to be – which was never fully realized but was full of busy people – I found the people I work with/for were gone! Worse, I didn’t have the clothing or office equipment like computers and phones which I required.
Tense seconds were spent cursing and thinking. Then, I knew that my team would have provided for me. I just needed to find that stuff.
Considering the environment, I didn’t see anywhere or anything obvious until I spotted a pallet of trash.
Yes, they would hide it there.
I pulled the top of the trash away. Below it was a large black plastic shipping bag. I tugged it out and opened it. Inside were materials marked with my name, including phone, laptop, clothing, and several folders containing information about my assignment and tickets for my trip.
Relieved, I dressed and began wending through the crowd, on my way again.
56 F, spring is holding on against a late winter effort. Today’s sky favors heavy cloud blanketing and pots of sunshine. Blue has been shouldered out of the scene. Our high will tap the low sixties and tomorrow is supposedly going down into the 30s at night.
Round and round is going round my head. I began writing about the news. It became so Trumpcentric, I split it off.
I’m also going round and round with health matters. It’s bizarre to me because I feel pretty damn good. Could lose a few more pounds, and if you’re giving out miracles, put some hair back on my head.
They found a mass in my bladder yesterday. Not big, something like 2cm. We’ll check it out next week, see what it is, deal with it. The CT scan said liver, intestines, spleen, pancreas, appendix all look good. No loose fluid. Kidneys are intact and the right one has come calculi. The summary says all those things look just like they did in the 2021 scans, when kidney stones advanced out of my left kidney. Oh, what a night.
Everything with Mom is going round and round. The tale is familiar and old. Mom seems happy, enjoying others’ company, goes silent with all. All seems well. Then WHAMO. We’re bowled over by unexpected news and then wait for updates. Mom is being very cagey. We’re letting the assisted living home and county adult social services run the show.
So round we go, weather, health, Mom, Trump. The Neurons have blessed me with “You Spin Me Round” by Dead or Alive in the morning mental music stream. The song’s sentiment is about seeing and wanting someone. The disco beat just has me hooked on the idea that things keep me going round like a record.
Amusing: do the children know what it means to go round like a record?
Probably as much as I knew about ‘going spooning’ or a bicycle built for two.
Going round with a cup of coffee now. Hope your day goes well and peace and grace came around.
Same war, same Trump, intentions going everywhere in a lost haze of thought.
TSA lines are causing traffic delays as TSA agents don’t come to work. Why should they? Trump is not paying them because of his partial government shutdown.
As oil prices go up, so do gas prices at the pump but analysts warn that oil prices will hit every sector because of shipping. Meanwhile, another set of analysts warn that we’ll probably start seeing food prices increasing because of Trump’s tariffs — from ‘liberation day’ of last year. Companies were spreading the costs out among multiple products and lines to spread increases and ease the pain. Now, forced to the wall, Food Navigator thinks the price increases will be more direct.
My wife and I are forever laughing about economists and their expectations. Earlier this month, the poor jobs growth surprised them. Now APNews reports it’s consumer wholesale prices.
U.S. wholesale prices came in hotter than expected in February, driven partly by a sharp increase in food costs.
The Labor Department reported Wednesday that its producer price index — which measures inflation before it hits consumers — rose 0.7% from January, and 3.4% from February 2025. The year-over-year increase was the most since February 2025.
The price gains were bigger than economists had forecast, and they occurred before the U.S. and Israel attack on Iran pushed energy prices sharply higher.
It’s like, where do these economists live and shop that they don’t walk into a place and notice prices going on month by month? It’s surreal.
Now my wife and I are trying to figure out what a ‘K-shape economy recovery’ looks like. I’m telling you, if it’s not one thing…
Oh, BTW. Remember how Trump said he and one of his Republican lackeys had a great plan to send a hospital ship to Greenland? Surprised everyone because we all knew the Navy’s hospital ships weren’t available, but Trump’s ‘plan’ grabbed headlines and distracted everyone from the Epstein files for a few days. No ship was ever sent.
I mention it now because Trump signed an executive order to have the government work with the NCAA and whatever so that the Army-Navy football game is the only game being broadcast.
That smacks of classic Trump distraction. Polls for him are down, the economy is swirling around the toilet, and the Epstein files still haunt him. Now, what he thought would be a one and done in Iran is a growing disaster. Quick! Distraction: Army-Navy game.
It’s 39 F outside. Wisps of white clouds are spread around the blue sky like clumps of pet fur. We’re expecting to visit the upper seventies today, lower by a few degrees which was originally forecast. Still, it’s good weather, more easily endured than the snowstorm striking parts of the U.S.
Snow out here would be welcomed. We’re in a snow drought. We’re below 50% of what’s ‘average’. This unseasonable warm weather will melt the snow faster, causing us even more problems this summer because we depend on snow melting throughout the year to keep our water levels up.
My wife and I were reminded yesterday that we’re not Boomers but Joneses. Generation Jones were born between 1954 and 1965, and that covers us. My wife rejected it before and rejected again, insisting, “We’re not like the Joneses.”
I embrace it, though. I like not being a boomer and being able to tell that to others. Makes me smile and laugh.
Last night, I read Heather Cox Richardson’s March 16, 2026 newsletter. In it, she recounted some of the battles and actions associated with the American Revolutionary War which ended 250 years ago.
I found it a good reminder of the period. I reject many of Trump policies as un-American and think that he’s ignoring the Constitution and multiple laws while breaking political norms.
The colonists of the 1770s were not united, as Ms Richardson points out. But enough were fed up with being ruled by a king that they rebelled.
Trump, aided by the GOP, supported by MAGA, is ruling like he’s a king, ignoring the will of Congress and the needs of the people. Just as it was said 250 years ago, “No kings.” Not then, and not now.
Yet, we’re as much divided now as we were during the War for Independence and the American Civil War. At least some of us are. I read an article in which Kimmel called Trump a bonehead. This comment was left about it:
“Obviously the president is not going to tell a reporter what his plans are just to have them give the enemy (people on the left like Kimmel) the plan. Trump has you liberals so screwed up in the head that you convulse at every word he says. Liberal is now synonymous with weak brained fools.”
From my POV, it is the right wing and conservatives that has Trump so screwed up in the head. They idolize everything he says, including the inane, lies, and bluster.
Trump has those MAGAts so messed up that they can’t understand the need for clearly stated goals and exit strategies. This was the same failing in multiple earlier wars, which using more reductivism, explains to me that Trump has cratered right-wingers’ abilities to learn or remember history.
They forget that Trump promised that Mexico would pay for the wall. Trump said he would release the Epstein files. After he didn’t, he tried to convince them it was a hoax by the Democrats.
Trump has the MAGAs so messed up, they forget that he said he would lower food prices on day one and end the Ukraine war on day one. He’s done neither.
It’s my niece’s birthday, so happy birthday to her! She’s a wonderful adult, with three growing sons, including a teen. Nothing is planned to celebrate her birthday, per her preferences, but I wish her a wonderful life.
Today’s music is “Me and Mrs. Jones”. This is a 1972 hit performed by Billy Paul. It’s been used in movies, recorded by others, and provides a good base for parody. The Neurons raised it in the morning mental music stream because of the whole Generation Jones thing, of course. *smile*
May your day be filled with peace, love, and understanding — cuz, what’s wrong with that?
Michael Seidel, writer 